


Howl Like a Coyote

by beifongingperfection (pristineungift)



Series: Sheriff Bei Fong and Coyote Bumi [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Western, F/M, Humor, Romance, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-19
Updated: 2012-07-19
Packaged: 2017-11-10 07:51:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/463927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pristineungift/pseuds/beifongingperfection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by teaanemone's sketch, which is featured in the coverart. See the original <a href="http://teaanemone.tumblr.com/post/27452218168/i-cowboy-aud-whoopss-bumi-is-more-of-a-gaucho-in">HERE</a>. Sheriff Bei Fong agrees to help an old friend, and gets more than she bargained for in this ridiculous cowboy adventure. In which guns are slung, horses are ridden, and everyone howls like a coyote.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Howl Like a Coyote

**Author's Note:**

> **Spoiler warning** for everything Avatar. Also, **everyone is about 5-7 years younger** here than they are in the first episode of Korra, and Tenzin and Pema don't have children yet.
> 
>  **There is a glossary of cowboy slang** in the endnotes.
> 
> No beta reader, so feel free to politely let me know if you see a grammar/spelling mistake. Also I had a lot of fun doing this. I could be persuaded to do a few more stories set in this universe if you guys like this one.

  


Lin Bei Fong reclined in her chair, propping her feet up on her battered oak desk. Her woolen pants were black, as was her shirt, her riding chaps, and her hat. Lighter colors would have been cooler under the hot summer sun, but Lin preferred black. Black didn’t show the grit that was part and parcel of life in the untamed west. Besides that, combined with her short, grey streaked hair and the two parallel scars on her cheek, her black clothes served to make her more imposing.

Made troublemakers think twice.

Even her knee high riding boots and long coat were black, though the coat was so old and covered with road dust that it appeared more grey than anything. The only spot of color about her was her neat green vest, buttoned smartly down the front, the shiny brass buttons matching the sheriff’s star pinned to her coat lapel.

Lin Bei Fong was sheriff of dusty Republic City, and she was good at her job.

Horse thieves? Not in _her_ town.

Duels? Outside the city limits, or the winner has to face Sheriff Bei Fong.

Rowdy drunks? Let them sleep it off in the hoosegow[i].

Lin had everything in the town well in hand.

So when her ex-bedwarmer[ii], a businessman by the name of Tenzin, strode into her office dressed like an ace-high[iii], Lin sat up and took notice.

Ever since Tenzin gave Lin the mitten[iv] and got himself hitched to a lady more suited to him, they’d barely spoken. She’d been angrier than a bull with a thorn in its rear for the better part of a year, but she got over it. As far as she was concerned, bygones were bygones.

But still, she’d never told Tenzin that. She hadn’t seen a point to it, when their paths rarely crossed. So it must have been something powerful important to bring him slinking to her door.

Pushing the brim of her hat back with one finger, Lin took in Tenzin’s appearance. He was as buttoned and crisp as she remembered him – precisely trimmed mustache, three piece suit, cufflinks, watch fob and chain that she knew was attached to the open face timepiece he’d inherited from his father, and little spectacles perched on the end of his nose.

He took his hat off before speaking to her, like she was a lady with delicate sensibilities.

Lin rolled her eyes. “Don’t pussyfoot around[v], Tenzin. What brings you here?”

Tenzin cleared his throat, shuffling his feet. “Lin, I know that. Well. I know we haven’t spoken in a long time. But I. That is…”

“Tenzin,” Lin growled, crossing her arms.

Tenzin looked up, and Lin softened. There was real anguish on his face.

“What is it?”

“It’s my brother. You know he’s always been a bit…”

“Crazy?”

“…Wild. He’s got into something of a difficulty[vi] two towns over. A mob put him into the town stockade. They’re going to hang him, Lin!”

Lin’s brows arched in shock, disappearing into her hairline. Bumi? Hanged?

“For what?” she snapped, feeling the familiar thrill down her spine that meant she was on the trail of something big.

Tenzin twisted his hat in his hands, seemingly not noticing that he was ruining the shape. “For murder. They say he killed a man. A firebender. They’re saying he’s part of that posse that’s been rounding benders up, maybe even their leader.”

Lin stood, her hand resting on the butt of her pistol. “Do you think he’s guilty?”

Tenzin’s face fell. His voice was quiet when he answered. “I really don’t know, Lin. I just don’t know. I don’t think so. Bumi’s never had a problem with benders. He’s hot tempered, but – ” Tenzin trailed off, sputtering.

Striding around her desk, her spurs making little chinking sounds with every step, Lin placed her hand on Tenzin’s shoulder. “I’ll go see what I can do, old friend.”

Lin set out that very afternoon. She had a lot of riding to do if she was going to get to Bumi in time to pull his fat out of the fire[vii].

**-l-**

Lin saw Bumi as soon as she arrived. He looked just as she remembered him – maybe a little darker from the sun, his hair and beard a little wilder, his shoulders broader. But he was still Bumi, Tenzin’s rough riding brother, crazier than a bedbug and mean as hell.

Course, the fact that he was doubled over, his head and hands trapped between the wooden slats of the stocks, made him easier to spot. The mob had stripped him of his coat, hat, weapons, and boots, leaving him in a white linen shirt that flapped open in the front, and patched brown pants.

He was remarkably cheerful, for a man facing the hangman’s noose.

Not wanting to advertise her interest, Lin didn’t approach Bumi right away. Instead she dismounted and walked her horse over to the saloon, tethering the beast next to the water trough. Then she leaned against a post and folded her arms.

She waited, and listened.

A group of men passed the stocks twice to hoot and call out insults. Bumi just smiled and waved at them with two fingers, even laughing when one of them said something about his mother.

A young woman in a pretty blue dress, her hair curled and coifed, kept lingering near the stocks. Bumi smiled at her, and she blushed.

Lin frowned.

Bumi’s most frequent visitor was a little boy in a dirty green shirt. He brought the man water in a beaten tin dish, and held up an apple so that Bumi could eat it, giggling when Bumi acted like a horse being given a treat.

From all of this, Lin could only draw one conclusion. Bumi was either innocent, or the one of the most coldblooded cowpokes to ever ride a horse. If he had killed a man like the people of the town claimed, then he felt no remorse.

Keeping a hand on her gun, Lin made her way over.

“Lin,” Bumi greeted her quietly. “Mind standing ‘tween me and the sun? The glare is something fierce.”

Lin snorted, but shifted her weight, throwing her shadow across Bumi’s face. “What have you gotten yourself into this time, Bumi?”

“Nothing a kiss from the prettiest lady to ever spin a pistol can’t fix,” Bumi retorted, puckering his lips and waggling his brows at her.

Lin chuckled in spite of herself. “You don’t take anything seriously, do you?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“Enough beating the devil around the stump.[viii]” Lin raised her foot, using metalbending to slide the metal sole of her left boot away. Then she planted her foot against the ground, wiggling her toes in the dirt for good measure. “Tell me what happened. And I’ll know if you lie, you old blowhard[ix].”

Bumi sighed. “Good ol’ Tenzin, sending the cavalry to come save me. He must really be worried, to have gone to you. You know he can hardly stand to look you in the face.”

Lin raised a hand to the scars that scored her cheek. “I see.”

“You know Tenzin. He feels awful about how things fell out with you, him, and Pema. Every time he sees you, it brings all that shame back again. He reckons he’d deserve it if you never spoke to him again, he’s that sorry.”

“Oh.”

_Oh._

“The point, Bumi,” Lin prodded, unnerved by the knowing look in Bumi’s eyes.

Bumi pouted at her.

Lin was not moved.

“Alright, alright. I did get into a dust up with a firebender a few nights back. I shot him. Maybe I killed him, maybe I didn’t. I don’t rightly know. He was still kicking, last time I saw him. Could be my bullet that did for him. Could be something else got him in the end. But I ain’t no equalist!”

 “Equalist?”

“What they’ve started calling those thugs that have been harassing benders. I don’t have any part in that. How could I? My Ma would turn me over her knee and waterbend my backside so hard, my poor dead Paw would feel it.”

He was telling the truth.

Lin let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. “Why’d you get in a shootout with the firebender?”

Bumi frowned, a dark look passing over his face that reminded Lin why they called him Coyote Bumi.

He was a curly old wolf[x].

“See that boy?” Bumi jerked his chin.

Lin turned, spying the little boy in the dirty green shirt she’d observed bringing water and food to Bumi earlier. An older boy with a red bandana around his neck came forward and pulled the younger one away as she watched, fear written on his face.

“I was bedding down in their barn for the night. Their folks were real nice, refusing to take any money for me or my horse, and served better food then I’d have got at the inn.”

“They _were_?”

Bumi nodded, his lips pressed into a grim line. “They’re both in the bone orchard[xi] now. I woke up when I heard screaming. The firebender was trying to bulldoze[xii] ‘em out of their money. When they wouldn’t give it up, he decided he’d take it, by hook or by crook. He killed the man ‘fore I could get out of the barn. I got a shot off just before he did for the woman. That’s when I hit him. Then he ran off. I’d have gone after him, but the house was on fire. I had to get those kids out.”

“That’s why he’s been taking care of you,” Lin murmured, looking in the direction where the two boys had vanished.

“Poor kid. Reminds me of Tenzy.”

Lin lifted her foot again, this time to put the sole of her boot back in place. “Who’s in charge here? I’ll go explain things.”

“Mayor Tarrlok. And I doubt he’ll care why I did what I did. He doesn’t seem to like me much.”

“Oh, he’ll see things my way. I can be very persuasive,” Lin said as she put her hand on her gun.

Bumi laughed uproariously, thumping one of his hands against the wood of the stockade in lieu of clapping, his jovial demeanor returning. “A woman after my own heart. Tell me,” he leered, “what do you plan to do if Tarrlok won’t see sense?”

“Then we work outside the law,” Lin promised. She wouldn’t leave Bumi to die. Not when all he was guilty of was trying to help a family that had been kind to him.

“You’re hotter than a whore on nickel night[xiii],” Bumi growled, ending the sentence with a smack of his lips.

Lin sighed in exasperation, but the light in her eyes said she just might like this flannel-mouthed chisler[xiv].

**-l-**

Bumi dozed through the night, though he never got any real rest. His muscles ached from so much time spent in one position, his legs tingling as they fell asleep. He shifted his weight to his right foot, and then shook his left leg out, trying to restore blood flow.

“What are you doing?” Lin hissed at him, appearing out of the shadows. She had her old grey coat pulled tight around her, and a layer of dirt had been rubbed over her face, dulling the white of her skin.

So they were doing things the hard way then. That was fine.

Bumi loved doing things the hard way.

“I’m having a fandango[xv],” he told her as he put his left leg down and started shaking out the right. If they were getting ready to make a break for it, he’d better make sure he was able to run. “So Tarrlok wouldn’t hear of letting me go, eh?”

Lin humphed at him, and Bumi couldn’t help but smile. She reminded him of his favorite mare. Spirited, as like to bite you as to let you ride, but once you learned her little tell tales, she was a lovable filly.

“Where’ve they stowed your gear?” Lin asked, sliding into a metalbending stance. “And is there anything you can’t leave behind?”

“My horse is picketed behind the saloon. No idea where they’ve put anything else, but it doesn’t matter. Only thing I’m real fond of is the horse.”

“Good.” Lin twisted her hands, her elegant fingers mesmerizing Bumi for a few seconds. The lock that held the stockade closed around him twisted and fell free, no match for Lin’s metalbending.

Bumi pushed himself up with a low groan, his spine cracking as he straightened. “I’m getting too old for this. Maybe I’ll retire once we’re free and clear. Go mooch off my little brother.”

Lin rolled her eyes. “You’ll die in the saddle, and we both know it.”

Bumi smiled lasciviously at her and was opening his mouth to make a remark about something interesting he and Lin could do with a saddle, when there was the sound of a gunshot.

Lin tackled him to the ground, then rolled free, springing to her feet and flying immediately into a powerful spinning kick. Something whizzed by fast enough to blow Bumi’s hair back, and he realized that Lin had just sent the shooter’s bullet zinging back at them with metalbending.

Damn, what a woman! If they weren’t in the middle of a gun fight, he’d dip her back and kiss her so hard her toes would curl.

But there wasn’t time.

Bumi pushed himself to his feet and darted in behind Lin, pulling her pistol from its holster. She grabbed his wrist, spinning to face him, but then nodded and let him go when she saw it was him.

“What now?” he asked her as he took aim, cocking the pistol.

“Back to back,” Lin ordered, deflecting another bullet, then vaulting into place, each of them facing a different direction. “And now we fight like Kilkenny cats[xvi].”

“My kind of plan!” Bumi threw his head back and howled at the moon.

“It’s Coyote Bumi! He’s on the loose!” a voice came from the darkness. Bumi recognized that voice. It was one of the men who had been heckling him when he was in the stocks.

Dashing away from Lin, Bumi caught the lily-livered crowbait[xvii], and pistol-whipped him good. The first blow to the temple knocked the good-for-nothing out.

Bumi hit him again, just for the satisfaction of it.

“You shouldn’t’ve insulted my Ma.”

“Bumi! Time to go!” Lin shouted, whistling for her horse.

“Coming, sweetheart!” Bumi shouted back, running around the back of the saloon.

“Don’t call me sweetheart!” Lin fussed once they galloped abreast on the rode out of town, Lin riding with reins and saddle, Bumi riding bareback.

“Sure as shooting, little lady!”

Lin grumbled.

Bumi laughed.

**-l-**

“They still on our tail?” Bumi asked when Lin woke him to take his watch. They’d been on the road for almost a week, as far as he could figure. The night Lin busted him out of the stockade, a price had been put on both their heads, and now they were being pursued by an even mix of bandits, bounty hunters, and lawmen.

Bumi was disappointed that Lin was worth twice as much as him, though he had to admit she was the more dangerous of the two of them in a fair fight.

That was why he never fought fair.

“Half a day’s ride behind us,” Lin answered, dark circles under her eyes. “They’re trying to push us. So that we start making mistakes.”

“What we need is a place to hide out until we can clear our names.” Bumi yawned, his jaw cracking. He was getting tired of sleeping in the same clothes. He was getting tired of riding without a saddle. He was tired of no shoes.

“We need to find a place to buy more food. All we have left is a tin of beans and half a smoked sausage.”

Bumi groaned, then got to his feet and looked around.

He was struck with a sudden realization as he noticed the pattern of a rocky outcropping to their left. “Is that the Yazi River in the distance?”

Lin looked up from repacking her saddle bag. “Yes.”

Bumi clapped his hands and gave a whoop, startling the horses. Lin immediately shushed him, giving him a tongue lashing about making such a racket when they were trying to lay low.

Bumi grinned through her tirade, his eyes trained on her lips. There was a real spark of fire in that woman, for all that she was an earthbender.

“Bumi, are you listening?”

“I know where we can get some food, and be safe for a while.”

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Lin demanded, throwing her hands up in disgust.

She got the cutest little wrinkle between her brows when she was glowering at him.

“There’s a tribe of Nomads nearby. My sister married into them. They’ll take us in.”

**-l-**

Kya was delighted to see her brother, and even more delighted to see Lin, as far as Lin could tell. Dressed in beads, buckskins, and moccasins, her white hair intricately braided to honor her husband’s tribe, Kya practically radiated peace and happiness.

“Oh Lin!” the breezy waterbender drifted over, pulling Lin into a hug. “It’s so good to see you again! The last time we were together was at the family dinner where Tenzin hadn’t told Mama you and he weren’t together anymore, and she kept asking when you two were going to take the march down to the chapel! Wasn’t that funny?”

“Hilarious,” Lin answered stiffly.

Kya always had been an odd stick[xviii]. Growing older hadn’t changed her a bit.

“Kya!” Bumi called, coming to Lin’s rescue with a wink.

“Bumi!” Kya called back, letting Lin go so that she could throw herself at her brother. To Lin’s utter bewilderment, they both threw their heads back and howled before embracing, Bumi picking his sister up and spinning her around.

One of the Nomad men, a rather important warrior judging by the feathers in his hair and the symbols painted on his face and chest, approached Lin and raised his hand in greeting. Lin returned the gesture respectfully, wondering if he spoke the common tongue.

“My wife loves her brother, and her brother’s friends,” the man said, answering Lin’s question before she could ask it.

“Thank you for making us welcome. I’m Lin Bei Fong.”

“And I am Flows-The-River. Come. My wife will want to make food for you and Howling Coyote, and give you better clothes.”

 _Howling Coyote?_ Lin smirked. That could only mean Bumi.

“Oh what a great idea, Riv!” Kya interrupted, hanging on Flows-The-River’s arm. The man blushed, plainly head over heels in love with the waterbender squealing in his ear.

Lin was both happy for them, and jealous all at once.

“We’ll have a party!” Kya continued. Then she turned to the tribe members that had gathered to see the new-comers and shouted something Lin couldn’t understand in the Nomad language.

The people cheered.

**-l-**

Lin was separated from Bumi, which shouldn’t have made her nervous, but did. She told herself it was because his safety was her responsibility. She’d made a promise to Tenzin, after all.

She chose to ignore the fact that they were very unlikely to be attacked while surrounded by Kya’s tribe.

The women of the tribe bustled Lin off to a tent made of buckskins, where they brought water in baskets woven so tightly that they didn’t leak. Before Lin knew what was happening, they were stripping her of her clothes, and Kya was waterbending the water onto her skin, washing away the dirt that had accumulated over the past week.

“Be careful with that!” Lin snapped, when an old Nomad woman pulled at her belt. She was afraid of her gun going off. She’d forgotten that her holster hung empty. Bumi was carrying her pistol until they could pick one up for him.

The old woman simply patted Lin’s hand, as if Lin were a child fussing about being made to dress up. She said something in the Nomad language. Lin looked to Kya for a translation.

“She says you’re just nervous. She understands.”

The woman spoke again, and Kya listened, then giggled. “She says don’t worry. You’ll get to see Howling Coyote when the party starts.”

“I don’t. That’s not. All of this is unnecessary!” Lin sputtered, feeling her cheeks heat.

“Of course it’s necessary,” Kya practically sang. “You and my brother are our honored guests!”

Once Lin was clean, Kya presented her with a buckskin dress and the old woman started to paint designs on Lin’s face – though only after consulting Kya on what color paint to use.

“Green!” Kya chirped. “Lin is an earthbender, and it’ll match her eyes.”

There didn’t seem to be any arguing with them without resorting to actual violence, so Lin found herself sitting cross-legged in a teepee, letting an old woman paint her face, while two little girls wove flowers into her hair.

Lin declined the moccasins Kya tried to give her, then put on her boots and demonstrated why she wanted to keep them. The gathered women oohed and aahed when Lin used metalbending to slide the soles away so she could put her bare feet against the ground.

“You look perfect!” Kya gushed once everything was done. Lin had no idea what she looked like. There wasn’t a mirror to be found. “Bumi isn’t going to be able to take his eyes off you!”

Lin felt her face flush, and then frowned, balled up over her reaction[xix].

“Kya, I think you have the wrong idea – ” Lin began.

But it was too late. Kya bounced from the tent, pulling Lin along behind her, shouting that it was time to start the party.

The woman really was a force of nature.

**-l-**

Uncomfortably aware that she fit in at parties about as well as a snake in a bird nest, Lin kept to the edge of the circle of people talking and laughing around the bonfire. She was enjoying watching the tribe’s benders and dancers perform together, one particularly gifted storyteller bending the center of blue flame in the bonfire to illustrate her tale.

Lin was so engrossed, she didn’t immediately notice when a man sidled up beside her.

“Hey there, Grumbly,” a deep voice purred in her ear. Lin jumped, turning to give the man a disapproving look.

It was Bumi.

There were red feathers braided into his hair, and red symbols painted on his bare chest. He wore only buckskin breeches and a matching pair of moccasins. With his dark hair and skin, he really looked like one of the men of the tribe. Only his features gave him away – his nose and cheekbones weren’t quite sharp enough to pass for Nomad. He had something of a pot belly from years of drinking the swill served to cowboys at roadside inns.

Lin tried to find that belly disgusting, but the only word that came to mind was ‘cute.’

She _did not_ think things were cute.

She couldn’t speak for several seconds.

“What did you just call me?” she asked at last, after an embarrassingly long pause.

Bumi laughed, the muscles in his chest and arms bulging as he held his stomach.

Lin wondered if he was doing that on purpose.

“You mean you haven’t heard?” he snickered, wiping tears of mirth off his cheeks with one finger. “That’s what they’re calling you. I’m Howling Coyote, and you’re Grumbles-Like-The-Earth.”

“I – What?!” Lin crossed her arms, resisting the urge to pout. “I do _not_ grumble.”

“Of course you don’t,” Bumi said, his tone clearly indicating he was humoring her.

Lin grumbled.

Then she stopped, pursing her lips when she realized what she had done.

Bumi raised a brow and smiled a smug smile that made her want to punch him right in his big bazoo[xx].

“Come on, Lin. It’s a party. Loosen up. Let’s dance!” Bumi held his hand out to her.

“I don’t dance.”

“Aww, come on. Don’t be a Tenzin,” Bumi teased.

“Maybe later,” Lin mumbled, her stomach doing weird little flip flops.

Bumi slung an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. “Then let’s have a drink! They’re serving cactus juice. It’s a big deal Nomad spirit. Put some hair on your chest.” He thumped his free hand against his own hairy chest for emphasis.

Lin fidgeted, shrugging Bumi’s arm off.

“No? Well, probably for the best. Doubt you could hold your liquor anyway.”

That stopped Lin cold. Knowing that he was baiting her, and not caring, she turned to glare at him. “I can drink you under the table any day of the week.”

“You’re on!” Bumi clapped his hands together with a sharp crack.

**-l-**

The night was a blur from that point forward. Lin remembered the sound of drums and the heat of the fire, a whirlwind of dancing and flowers and feasting, and always Bumi beside her, his voice in her ear.

The cactus juice was sweet, and somehow tasted of the earth. Lin liked it.

“Lin. Lin. Lin. Lin. Lin. Liiiiinnnnnnnnn,” Bumi slurred, sitting across from her, a bowl of cactus juice in his hands.

“What, Coyote? What is it?” Lin asked, swaying as she tried to focus on his face.

Bumi leaned forward, pressing their foreheads together. “Did you know there are _forests_ in your _eyes_? How did they get in there? How did you, Lin, how did you do that?” Bumi hiccupped.

“I don’t know,” Lin whispered, pitching face first into Bumi’s chest. The paint on his skin seemed like it might taste like berries, so Lin licked it.

“Tickles,” Bumi muttered.

“Quiet!” Lin shushed him. “I’m conshentrating.” Bumi’s chest hair was whispering to her. She had to figure out what it was saying. It was important. Scooting closer, she turned her face so that her ear was pressed to Bumi’s chest, just over his heart.

“What’s that? Is that a mushroom? Lin. Lin. Liiiinnnnn. Whassat? What’re they doing?” Bumi pulled on Lin’s hair, forcing her to face the bonfire.

Couples were leaping over the flames, their hands linked, to the cheers of people around them.

“That’s a fire, Coyote. I think they’re having a contest. Who can jump highest over the fire.”

Bumi stood. Without him to lean on, Lin fell over.

“Come on, Grumbly! We’re gonna jump the fire better than these folk have ever seen!” He downed half the cactus juice in his bowl, then thrust it into Lin’s hands.

She finished what was left and put the bowl on her head like a hat. It would protect her flower crown during the fire-jumping contest. She was sure of it.

Bumi helped Lin to her feet and dragged her over to the fire. Then they backed up so they could get a running start.

“Hold on,” Lin whispered just before they started to run. When they were a few feet away from the fire, Lin slammed her foot into the ground, sending a block of earth up under their feet, giving them a springboard into the air. They flew so high over the flames that they barely felt the heat, landing on the other side with a mighty thump.

“What a woman!” Bumi crowed, wrapping his arms around Lin and hoisting her onto his shoulder.

Lin laughed, raising her arms up in victory as the tribe exploded with cheers. “Bumi, I think we won! We won!”

Kya was grinning and leading everyone in an impromptu performance of _Secret Tunnel_. Her husband smiled beside her, shouting out, “Congratulations!”

 Bumi let Lin down, her body sliding along his, her buckskin dress riding up as he kept her pressed tightly to his side so that they wouldn’t lose their balance and fall.

“We won,” she said again.

“We sure did, sweetheart.”

Then Bumi was kissing her, and his lips were warm, and his beard tickled, and oh, Lin was kissing him back, and he pulled her close, his tongue sliding into her mouth. Lin moaned, her hands in his hair, one of her legs sliding up to wrap around his waist.

Then his lips were on her neck, and his beard was rough against her skin, making her break out in gooseflesh, a delicious shiver running down her spine. He had half the ties of her buckskin dress open and her breast in his hand before Lin realized they were still standing in the middle of a crowd of people.

**-l-**

Lin woke up with a funny taste in her mouth and flowers in her hair. Her face was itchy with sleep-smeared paint.

But she was warm, almost cozy even, and felt more relaxed than she had since this whole crazy adventure began.

She stretched.

That was when she noticed the arm draped over her waist. Immediately following that, she realized she wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing unless you counted her crown of flowers.

_What the – ?_

Lin opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder to see Bumi sleeping soundly behind her, his front perfectly molded to her back. From what Lin could feel, he wasn’t wearing any clothes either.

Well then. They must have gotten well and truly roostered[xxi] the night before.

Bumi looked sort of sweet when he was sleeping. When he was awake his face was always twisted into some manic expression.

Lin banished the thought. Just because they’d slept together didn’t mean they were in some kind of  relationship or she had feelings for him, or anything like that. It was just sex. Sex that they both seemed to have enjoyed a great deal, but that was that.

The flap of their teepee was wrenched open.

“Kya!” Lin exclaimed, pulling up the woven blanket she and Bumi were laying under to cover her breasts.

Kya was unperturbed. She knelt next to Lin, setting down a basket filled with fruit and dried meat, presumably their breakfast. “Oh Lin! I’m so happy. I always wanted you to be my sister. You know that.”

Lin was reaching for a piece of fruit, trying to act as if she was as unaffected by the situation as Kya, when she registered what her friend had said. “Sister… Kya, what?”

“River says that you can have this teepee and one of our horses as a wedding present! Oh, I can’t wait to tell Mama. She’ll be so excited”

“Wedding present?!” Lin exploded, gaping like a fish.

“Of course,” Kya said serenely. “You and Bumi jumped the fire last night. And so high, too! You know what they say, the higher the jump, the longer the marriage!”

Lin could do nothing but sit there, clutching at her blanket, her mouth hanging open.

Bumi stirred, stretching with a groan. “Morning, sweetheart,” he said once he saw Lin, a dopy smile on his face.

 

* * *

[i] Hoosegow: Jail.

[ii] Ex-bedwarmer: Ex-lover.

[iii] Ace-high: Well to do; upper class; nobleman/woman.

[iv] Gave the mitten: To reject a lover.

[v] Don’t pussyfoot around: Get to the point.

[vi] A difficulty: Trouble

[vii] Pull fat out of the fire: Save someone.

[viii] Beating the devil around the stump: Evading a topic.

[ix] Blowhard:  Braggart.

[x] Curly old wolf: Tough guy; very dangerous man.

[xi] In the bone orchard: Buried in a cemetery; dead.

[xii] Bulldoze: Bully; intimidate.

[xiii] Hotter than a whore on nickel night: You’re very attractive. Lots of people want to have sex with you.

[xiv] Flannel-mouthed chisler: Smooth talking con man.

[xv] Fandango: A Spanish dance; slang for a dance party.

[xvi] Fight like Kilkenny cats: Fight like hell.

[xvii] Lily-livered crowbait: Cowardly, broken down/useless horse.

[xviii] Odd stick: Eccentric person; odd ball.

[xix] Balled up: Confused by emotions; without a clue.

[xx] Big Bazoo: Fat mouth.

[xxi] Roostered: Very drunk.


End file.
